Professional Portfolio
Evaluation and Targets
Reason for Enrolling in the CBTS Program
There are various reasons that motivated me to take the CBTS program. First, I have a passion for dancing and having attended multiple sessions with my best friend, I met with students and trainers who motivated me. This prompted me to improve my skills to that of a professional dance teacher. In these sessions, I attended and learnt some basics in dancing such as how to move my hips, express my emotions, and how to initiate various related movements. Therefore, there was a need to enroll for the Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies course to enable me achieve my dream of becoming a future great teacher of ballet. Besides, taking the program will also aid in acquiring some teaching experience and enhance the ability to mentor other people in dancing. Further, the course is a qualification for eligibility to register as a teacher with any dancing college and other institutions.
Career Aims
My career goal in my first year is to become a professional dancer after school. However, in the first year, my goals are to help other dancers create a passion out of hobby by passing necessary knowledge to them. In addition, it also includes making the learning environment more conducive and unlocking other people’s creativity. Other objectives include increasing self-awareness, self-discipline, and critical thinking skills.
Strength as a Ballet Teacher
There are strengths and weaknesses in regard to the course under study. My strengths in the course is excellent stage performance using many styles such as Singapore and Esplanade. This does not make me only a student with passion but it also adds to my current experience. Other than this, I have extensive training on how to use varying techniques of dancing; They include Latin dance, Asian, Korean Zen dance, training among others. These techniques come alongside ballet modern dance training.
Skill that Provided Biggest Challenge
Even with such extensive trainings and having acquired different skills, I have faced the biggest challenges in the process of building dancing skills. For example, I have performed excellent hips moves and toes. On the other hand, there are problems such as putting or balancing weight appropriately and others when performing. Other weaknesses and challenges are posture, corrections, stiff hips, musicality, and turn out.
Further training required to complete long-term career aims
Having a certificate in ballet teaching studies also require some training in other areas. These areas include filming and video shooting as a tool of evaluating my skills when training students. One needs skills on how to connect emotionally with other dancers to make the schedule seamless. Interpersonal communication is also necessary to enhance the relationship between teachers and students. A combination of these skills would be imperative and necessary to thrive in my career.
Three Targets
In an educational role, I wish to bring some changes in teaching pedagogy. First, many students have issues with developing the sense of self-esteem, excellent communication, and self-confidence. These makes them fear to expose themselves, making mistakes and also doing the wrong thing. Thus, it will be beneficial for teachers to impart knowledge on self-esteem and communication because students will accept corrections. The other target revolves around improving the psychological wellbeing of the students. This is because the act of dancing does not only concern knowing the correct steps but techniques of expressing feelings and emotions using the body. Therefore, the target is to make them have these skills to boost their prowess.[1]
My last objective is teaching to impart knowledge and necessary skills to students to cope with modern trends. In addition, there is need to make them creative and encouraging them to read widely. An area of profession develops when people become innovative and creative because they come up with new techniques and understand other issues affecting dancing.[2]
Goals of the Training
The goal of the training is to pass knowledge to other dancers on how to perform ballet moves and sustain them. The target includes kids, adults, and aging people.[3] Dancing is defined as the art where people move their body to the tunes of a piece of music.[4] It is both a form of recreation and art because most of those involving in it get time and space to entertain while also communicating with them. Dancers have the capacity to express their feelings such as joy but without altering any words. Since time immemorial, people have shown compassion to dance and this has evolved over time leading to a more complicated dancing types. For example, there are folk, religious, traditional, theatrical dancing amongst others.[5]
Out of all techniques, the most thrilling is ballet, but there are others such as jazz and comedy. The reason for choosing ballet dancing in training is that it has the sense of personal satisfaction and creating a beautiful and thrilling experience. However, the most important thing is not the emotions and others but the capacity to make them interpret their moves to the audiences. Therefore, to make the dancers understand the styles, there will be extensive training and extensive practicing.[6]
Ballet dancers are known for taking control of their bodies, but these can only take place upon learning how to perform complicated moves after a period of training. The training can mix both beginners and professional to help develop the skills and also keep the shape. The frequent is however not similar as professionals do not have to take many classes. On the other hand, beginners must attend classes frequently to learn a new technique and to improve them.[7]
Ballet dancers require such intensive practicing because they have to ignore the law of gravity when they float in the air for long. Besides, they must have the ability to balance their weight due to constant spinning. Many times, the feet move very fast which makes the eye hard to track and follow the movements being made. Women and men dance differently because the former uses the feet to dance while the latter lift them up.[8]
There is a heightened interest in the field of ballet dancing, but there is a huge gap between skills supply. Many of those interested include young children, millennial, and retired workers. Some are reported to join classes at tender age of between five and seven years in a bid to learn basic dance moves.[9] The current curriculum has some weaknesses that can only be solved through training. The training to be provided will allow the dancers to develop high strength, flexibility, and mobility. After gaining the basic dance moves, it will usher them into the most concentrated study of ballet especially for children. The older group will qualify to go for intermediate techniques like pointe.[10]
In the course of the training, the trainees will have an opportunity to engage in a competition and gauge the skills acquired. The competition will open advanced sessions of training to seal the existing gaps. These may include sending videos and planned live auditions for consideration. Students will spend most of their time learning evolutional dancing techniques from the art that are well researched. Toward the end of the training program, the trainees will publicly display the skills they have learned to others.
Added Value from the Goal
Competitiveness: Ballet is considered a romantic and elegant type of dancing, but there is a stiff level of competition in the industry. Competition among participants is becoming tough because many people have begun embracing the field. Therefore, training is required to sharpen skills and further impart new skills for the trainees. This is good for the industry because there are fresh talents injected to perform in many other forms of entertainment. This will also lead to substantial improvement in dancing styles and also the industry reinventing itself to reach new audiences. This includes those who never thought of watching ballet dancing.[11]
The ability to bring different people together: the training event is capable of bringing people together from various dimensions. This is beneficial for the professionals participating because they will interact with new people from different cultures. Professionals benefits by traveling to many places or interacting with people from different locations.[12]
Goal Orientation: the industry will become goal oriented when individual participants are trained to be as such. This is important because the dancers will set goals specific to the moves they want to learn and improving body physique. Further, the goals might be about forming a group of professional dancers to entertain the next show.[13]
Focus: Ballet dancing industry requires an intense dancing technique and styles, which requires intensive and incisive training. Dancers taking the stage must be aware of how to perform complex moves and routines, and this requires so much focus.
Socialization: There is an increasing number of participant and those penetrating ballet dancing. The training program is beneficial to the teacher because taking part provides space to meet with people from all dimensions and developing creative skills. In addition, it leads to increased time in dancing practices and number of friends. Since many people experience stress, it is a strategy of reducing it, improving health, and controlling obesity. Additionally, many people would like to perform ballet dancing, but there is no opportunity for training. As such, there is a space for people to engage in activities and join the industry as professionals. With many participants, there is increased innovation and creativity, which is better for the industry development. Further, since the training will offer vast skills other than dancing, many can offer themselves for various employment opportunities. For example, there will be an increasing number of professional dancers, choreography, trainers amongst others.
Career development: training leads to the development of skills required for the growth of the industry and career path of individuals. In the course of training, trainees will learn many skills with the aim of increasing self-esteem, building social skills and excellent communication between and inside group the industry.[14]
Professional Networking: Training ballet dancers in a program require various professionals to achieve set goals. Other than teaching how to make moves to dancers, body fitness is required to ensure flexibility, balance and others. In addition, there are groups of psychologists and counselors to help balance the emotion during performance. They also provide counseling to reduce or control stress that can affect performance. Lastly, there is communication specialist who trains on issues of effective communication between dancers and groups in the industry. With such skills gained from training, there will be high-level professional cooperation and improved interpersonal communication.[15]
Timeline
The training program will run for 21 weeks. In the first ten weeks, trainees will be imparted with skills such as body balance, elevation, mobility, stamina, flexibility, elevation, strength, and coordination. The remaining 11 weeks will be divided equally between counseling and communication skills. This will help them be effective in performance and have excellent communication. In the 11 weeks to be divided there will be few days to recap what has been learnt, competition, and skills assessment before the close of the programme.
Bibliography
Bläsing B, Calvo-Merino B, Cross ES, Jola C, Honisch J & Stevens CJ, “Neurocognitive control in dance perception and performance”, Acta Psychological, vol. 139, no.2, 2012, pp. 300-308.
Foster R, Ballet pedagogy, University Press of Florida, Florida, 2010, p. 723
Hänggi J, Koeneke S, Bezzola L& Jäncke L, “Structural neuroplasticity in the sensorimotor network of professional female ballet dancers”, Human Brain Mapping, vol. 31, no. 8, 2010, pp. 96-106.
Herbrich L, Pfeiffer E, Lehmkuhl U & Schneider N, “Anorexia athletic in pre-professional ballet dancers”, Journal of Sports Sciences, vol. 29,no. 11, 2011, pp. 15-23.
Kiefer AW, Riley MA, Shockley K, Sitton CA, Hewett TE, Cummins-Sebree S & Haas JG, “Multi-segmental postural coordination in professional ballet dancers”, Gait & Posture, vol. 34, no. 1, 2011, pp. 76-80.
Langdon SW and Petracca G. Tiny dancer, “Body image and dancer identity in female modern dancers”, Body Image, vol. 7, no. 4, 2010, pp. 360-363.
Malloch S and Trevarthen C, Communicative musicality: Exploring the basis of human companionship, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009.
Nordin-Bates SM, Cumming J, Aways D & Sharp L, “Imagining yourself dancing to perfection: Correlates of perfectionism among ballet and contemporary dancers”, Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, vol. 5, no. 4, 2011, pp. 41-47.
Payne H, Dance movement therapy: Theory and practice, Routledge, London, 2003.
Wyon MA, Twitchett E, Angioi M, Clarke F, Metsios G, & Koutedakis Y, “Time motion and video analysis of classical ballet and contemporary dance performance,” International Journal Of Sports Medicine, vol. 35, no. 11, 2011, pp. 851-855.
[1]. Langdon SW and Petracca G. Tiny dancer, “Body image and dancer identity in female modern dancers”, Body Image, vol. 7, no. 4, 2010, pp. 362.
[2]. Wyon MA, Twitchett E, Angioi M, Clarke F, Metsios G, & Koutedakis Y, “Time motion and video analysis of classical ballet and contemporary dance performance,” International Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 35, no. 11, 2011, pp. 852.
[3]. Foster R, Ballet pedagogy, University Press of Florida, Florida, 2010, p. 723
[4]. Nordin-Bates SM, Cumming J, Aways D & Sharp L, “Imagining yourself dancing to perfection: Correlates of perfectionism among ballet and contemporary dancers”, Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, vol. 5, no. 4, 2011, pp. 42.
[5]. Ibid 47
[6] Herbrich L, Pfeiffer E, Lehmkuhl U & Schneider N, “Anorexia athletic in pre-professional ballet dancers”, Journal of Sports Sciences, vol. 29, no. 11, 2011, p. 15.
[7] Bläsing B, Calvo-Merino B, Cross ES, Jola C, Honisch J & Stevens CJ, “Neurocognitive control in dance perception and performance”, Acta Psychological, vol. 139, no.2, 2012, p. 302.
[8] Hänggi J, Koeneke S, Bezzola L& Jäncke L, “Structural neuroplasticity in the sensorimotor network of professional female ballet dancers”, Human Brain Mapping, vol. 31, no. 8, 2010, p. 97
[9] Kiefer AW, Riley MA, Shockley K, Sitton CA, Hewett TE, Cummins-Sebree S & Haas JG, “Multi-segmental postural coordination in professional ballet dancers”, Gait & Posture, vol. 34, no. 1, 2011, pp. 76.
[10] Kiefer, et al. p.76
11 Payne H, Dance movement therapy: Theory and practice, Routledge, London, 2003, p.40.
[12] Ibid
[13] Payne, p. 372
[14] Malloch S and Trevarthen C, Communicative musicality: Exploring the basis of human companionship, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009.
[15] ibid
